Relief and questions after Delta accident at La Guardia

An Instagram photo of passengers departing the Delta aircraft that skidded on the runway at LaGuardia Airport and crashed into a fence on Thursday morning, March 5, 2015. Photo Credit: Larry Donnell via Instagram

The nose of a big jetliner poking through a fence and resting on an embankment perilously close to Flushing Bay says it all. We caught a break Thursday.

In a heavy snowfall, Delta Air Lines Flight 1086 from Atlanta skidded off a LaGuardia Airport runway and came perilously close to plunging into the icy water at 11:10 a.m. The plane carried 127 passengers, including New York Giants tight end Larry Donnell, and five crew members. Fortunately, only minor injuries were reported.

The runway had just been plowed, and pilots of two planes that touched down moments earlier reported no problems braking, Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye said. But with nasty snow, ice and rain torturing the region, conditions could have changed in a heartbeat. The incident raises inescapable questions:

Should the Federal Aviation Administration have directed flights away from LaGuardia? The airport was quickly shut down for three hours after the accident. Should it have been closed before? Was there pilot error? Did controllers miss something? Did equipment in the plane or on the ground malfunction? The National Transportation Safety Board and others will sift the evidence and eventually provide answers.

Flying is a remarkably safe way to travel. That's largely because every accident is intensively probed to ferret out what went wrong and what should be done to avoid a repeat. What investigators learn is used to continually improve the safety of planes and airports.